


The Shadow of Death

by MaverickWerewolf



Series: Stargate Atlantis episode tie-ins/expansions/revisions/etc [1]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Episode Related, Episode: s01e03 Hide and Seek, Gen, Hurt John Sheppard, John Sheppard Whump, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:22:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28705104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaverickWerewolf/pseuds/MaverickWerewolf
Summary: In "Hide and Seek," the shadow monster now moves a bit faster than Sheppard...
Series: Stargate Atlantis episode tie-ins/expansions/revisions/etc [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2097201
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	The Shadow of Death

**Author's Note:**

> Another installment in my plotbun episode revisions/expansions of "why didn't SGA whump poor John even more"?

The trap was a great idea and all, but as John stood there beside the MALP – the bait – about to turn it on, he couldn’t help but wonder why they couldn’t have rigged some kind of remote device to turn all this on. Or at least a big old stick that could reach over and flip the switch.

“It’s coming!” Elizabeth shouted from the control room.

Took about two seconds after that for John to see it. Pure, writhing darkness, flooding the hallways like living fog – the same thing that had somehow managed to stare him down, without eyes or at least without anything he could ever _think_ of as eyes, over the first trap they had tried.

John steeled himself. He turned on the MALP—

And, like a flood spilling down the halls, the shadow-creature rushed in. Before he could _move_ , it rushed in – and swallowed him.

\------------

From where he stood in the control room, staring through a window, Rodney saw it all play out. True, it played out in seconds, but he saw every bit of it. One second, Sheppard stood there. The next, the darkness was _everywhere_ , and Sheppard was still in it.

Half a second after that, he screamed. He started screaming and he didn’t stop and it distorted over the communicators and the sound twisted down into Rodney’s guts and dragged a heavy pain into them and—

“Sheppard!?” Weir shouted. Everyone shouted, but no one could do anything.

No one except him.

Rodney was not one for heroics; he never had been. Idiots did heroics, rushed off and got themselves killed without thinking, without _planning_ , usually because they were thickheaded products of the military industrial complex who were disciplined _not_ to think or else the scientists who were too stupid to understand their own projects.

Sheppard let loose one more wretched cry that echoed through the entire ‘gateroom, up into the control room, over the radio, everything…

And the darkness monster was still there, torturing him, not following the MALP because the MALP wasn’t _moving_ and the plan had _completely failed_.

Leaping to his feet, Rodney pulled the personal shield from his uniform pocket, stuck it on his chest – and ran down the stairs into the cloud of shadow.

Instantly, he regretted it, but he kept moving forward. The very air around him turned into a bluish mass, so charged with energy he could watch as it leapt here and there all around him – and there, twisted up on the floor in the middle of that shadow, was Major Sheppard. And only Rodney could help him.

This was insane.

Turning, he snatched up the case that was their bait, meant to ride out on the MALP, and threw it through the puddle of the open stargate.

Barely a moment since it disappeared through the event horizon, the darkness began to follow it…

\------------

The shadow disappeared, the ‘gate deactivated – and there lay Sheppard and there lay McKay, the first twisted up on himself from agony and the latter laying perfectly flat, spread-eagled on his back. Instantly, Elizabeth bolted from the control room and down the stairs toward them, one hand shooting up to a communicator in her ear.

“Med team to the ‘gateroom _now!_ _”_ she barked as she stopped over Sheppard.

But when she reached to touch him, to check for a pulse, she drew her fingers back. Every inch of his skin gave off smoke, sliding up from under the collar of his uniform, any visible flesh crisscrossed with burns like a lightning strike, just like had happened to Ford except worse. Sheppard wasn’t moving, his face stuck twisted in pain, the expression alone making her stomach shrivel. She could barely be sure with the heavy TAC vest in the way, but she at least thought he was still breathing.

Thankfully, the arrival of Carson Beckett announced itself as he declared behind her, “ _Good Lord!_ _”_

Elizabeth straightened up and moved back as the medical team arrived with a pair of gurneys, easing Sheppard’s motionless form onto one as Carson followed that team out of the room – and a few others broke off to tend to McKay, whose eyes were now open and looking around wildly.

“About _time_ ,” McKay said, voice coming out strained. The medical personnel eased him up into a sitting position and started checking him over – and Elizabeth watched as, the moment he reached for it, the personal shield on his shirt neatly fell off into his hand.

“Must’ve run out of power,” Elizabeth thought aloud.

McKay intoned an odd noise awkwardly stuck somewhere between panicked and relieved. Then he promptly looked around and blurted, “Am I okay? Am I alright? What’s—”

“You’re fine,” one of the medics assured him. “But you should go to the infirmary for observation, just to be sure.”

McKay blinked, stared, and then finally his eyes landed on Elizabeth as she stood nearby, arms folded in concern. The medics helped him up, but Elizabeth had already turned and started all but jogging toward the infirmary. McKay’s ability to stand on his own and his ability to breathe and speak and all the rest convinced her he would be fine.

Sheppard, on the other hand…

She barely gave the door enough time to slide open before she was through. With so much other work in the city that still needed doing, they had moved so few cots into the infirmary so far that it didn’t take her long to find Sheppard. Carson and some assistants swarmed around him, pulling off his vest and stripping him of his uniform.

“Alright, lads and lasses,” Carson began – until he noticed her from the corner of his eye and threw her a quick look. “Our Major’s about to get a wee bit nude for a moment as we check him over – if I could just have you step outside, Doctor Weir, I’ll give you an update soon as I can.”

Catching a blush starting to creep into her face, Elizabeth promptly nodded and did as suggested. As the door hissed shut behind her, McKay came stomping up the hall.

“Don’t,” she said as he reached for the door controls. He gave her an incredulous look, so she added, “They’re working on Sheppard. And… remind me to leave myself a note to have some curtains moved to the infirmary sooner rather than later.”

McKay blinked at her dully for a moment before his eternally wandering mind caught up. “Oh,” he said. “Right.” He paused. “Well, they said I was okay. Probably okay. Who knows what kind of damage that could’ve caused, _did_ cause, considering…”

His voice drifted. Elizabeth allowed herself a brief eye-roll, which apparently didn’t go unnoticed.

“How’s Sheppard?” McKay finally deigned to ask, but the amount of concern in his voice almost surprised her. At least, it might have if she hadn’t just seen this man charge into the theoretical jaws of a shadow monster to lure it off Atlantis – which may or may not have been prompted by Sheppard being in danger.

She liked to think he cared enough for that to be at least partially the reason.

“I don’t know,” she replied in a low tone that she knew betrayed her worry. “Hopefully we’ll know soon.”

\------------

Pain. That was his first feeling upon waking up: a whole lot of pain pulsing all through his body. But at least he didn’t burn anymore, not like before. Not like when the darkness swept in around him, blinded him, turned his world into nothing but burning, screaming, lancing pain shooting through his every nerve and every muscle, setting his blood on fire…

He felt pretty sure he had yet to experience anything as painful as that. And that included… well, anyway—

The soft hiss of oxygen and the cold in his nose told him he must’ve been having some trouble breathing – and that he was in the infirmary.

Blinking against the bright lights, John dared to move. Big mistake. Agony flared and his skin chafed against even the simple hospital gown somebody, undoubtedly Carson, had put him in. He _hated_ these things like he hated few other things on Earth, and still held true in the Pegasus Galaxy, too, as it turned out.

John stopped moving and let himself go limp on the cot, breathing out a long sigh – except his throat caught and he coughed, which drew a whole lot of attention. The door to the infirmary slid open and in stepped Carson, trailing Elizabeth and McKay along behind him. Without entirely realizing he had, John sank a little lower in the bed.

“Hi,” he said, playing himself off as casual. But his voice came out hard and grating, and it mostly sounded like another cough.

“Easy now, Major… here we go,” Carson said, turning one way and almost magically producing a tiny cup of water with a straw, holding it close enough for him to drink. Which John also hated, having to lean forward and have McKay stare at him judgmentally and Elizabeth with great concern while he sucked on a tiny straw in a tiny cup just so he could talk.

Once he had guzzled almost the whole thing, Carson pulled it away and chided, “Not too fast. You were in bad condition – almost didn’t make it.”

“Glad you could keep me alive, doc. Thanks,” John said, happy to be able to use his voice again. But he leaned his head back against the pillow again and side-eyed Elizabeth and McKay.

“I’m very pleased you’re alright, Major,” Elizabeth said with one of her ever-charismatic smiles, one that prompted John to put on a smile – albeit rather tiny – back at her. With a familiar touch of good-natured sass, she added, “I’d hate to lose our military commander this early into things.”

Behind her, McKay intoned an odd sound in his nose, but that was all. The smile on Elizabeth’s face turned almost conspiratorial, and John made a face at her.

She turned and looked at McKay next, saying pointedly, “It wasn’t just Doctor Beckett but also the daring heroics of Doctor McKay that saved your life, Sheppard. I thought you should know.”

John’s eyes locked onto McKay next. For a second, he just quirked a brow, and McKay awkwardly waved in acknowledgment.

After licking his parched lips, John drawled slowly – and admittedly with a brief crack in his voice at first, “Well… thank you, McKay.”

“Sure yeah, no problem,” McKay blurted at first. Then he slowly puffed himself up and added with considerably more confidence, “It _was_ quite brave, considering I too almost died. I suppose that means you might owe me one now, Major.”

A quirk of a smile tugged up one corner of John’s lips, and he nodded – which made his vision swim, so he promptly grunted and laid his head back again.

“Yeah,” he said. “I guess I do. Not like I haven’t saved _your_ life too, though.”

McKay hummed. At length, he said dryly, “Let’s not make a habit of it, shall we?”

John just snorted quietly.

No way he could promise that.


End file.
